In a world defined by revolutionary technology, a university like NJIT must be a path to every student’s professional success and an engine of economic growth. The success of local, regional and national economies increasingly depends on skilled professionals in the technological fields that are at the core of NJIT’s academic mission.

NJIT has transformed its profile over the last four decades, growing from a small engineering school into a doctoral research university, and this growth continues. Today, the university enrolls more than 10,000 students and spends over $100 million on basic and applied research every year.

Over the next decade, NJIT will accelerate the pace of change. This vision for the university in 2020 will guide the development of students, the transformation of the curriculum, the growth of scholarly research, the fostering of a global community, and the appropriate investment in human, physical and technological resources. It charts a course that will move NJIT into the ranks of premier research institutions.

Of the objectives outlined in this strategic plan, five must be given the highest priority:

Faculty Renewal—Developing and retaining faculty committed to education and research.

Global Community—Fostering international collaborations in a diverse academic setting.

This strategic plan will energize the trajectory that NJIT has chosen to follow. The Strategic Priorities of this plan call for a student body of the best prepared and most ambitious, entrepreneurial young men and women. They will see themselves as future leaders in their fields, prepared because they know that an NJIT education will give them the knowledge they must have to succeed, as well as the knowledge of the world’s complexity that provides them with the wisdom to be designers of a global society. The university will also be a local, regional and national leader in economic development as it contributes directly to the knowledge-based society and partners with government and industry.

It is important to recognize that this vision emerged through an open, participatory process. In early December 2013, members of the NJIT community were invited, in the spirit of shared governance, to participate in the strategic planning process. More than 200 faculty, administrators, students, alumni and board members joined five committees and numerous subcommittees to design the objectives and strategies. Out of these committees emerged specific reports for five areas: students, learning, scholarly research, community and investment.

These community-generated reports—over 150 pages of text—were edited for consistency and completeness, and then combined into a shorter Unified Committee Report that was shared with the community at large and used as a basis for presentation to the Board of Trustees and senior staff. Utilizing their feedback, the plan was reduced, reorganized and prioritized to form the concise 2020 Vision, maintaining the essential spirit and content of the Unified Committee Report.

Writing the final version of 2020 Vision was an extensive process. Drafts of the priorities, objectives, strategies and tactics faced detailed review by the deans, senior staff and a dedicated committee of the Faculty Senate, in addition to a four-month period for open comment by the NJIT community. To the extent possible, all concerns and criticisms were addressed and reconciled in subsequent iterations. Only at the end, after all the stakeholders had responded, was the community’s vision distilled into this concise document.

As the NJIT community worked together to set the priorities for 2020 Vision, it will also collaboratively achieve the goals set out in this plan. Success will be the product of the community working together to lift NJIT toward a new era of educational and research prominence.